Hanson — MMMBop
The inescapable earworm of 1997 — three teenage brothers from Tulsa, a falsetto hook, and a chorus of cheerful nonsense syllables. "MMMBop" topped charts in a dozen countries, launched a thousand "wait, that's a boy?" conversations, and still detonates on any '90s playlist.
"MMMBop" began life as a slower, gentler song on Hanson's self-released 1996 indie album before the Dust Brothers — the production duo fresh off Beck's Odelay — reworked it, with Stephen Lironi, into the bright, hiccuping pop-funk track that became the lead single from Middle of Nowhere. Released on March 24, 1997, it was the sound of that summer: a circular falsetto hook and a chorus built almost entirely out of the syllables "mmmbop."
The song was a global juggernaut. It hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on May 24, 1997, and held there for three weeks, while topping the charts in at least a dozen countries including the UK, Australia, Canada, and Germany. It earned Grammy nominations for Record of the Year and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group. And it made overnight idols of Isaac, Taylor, and Zac Hanson — roughly 16, 14, and 11 years old — with long-haired frontman Taylor's soaring voice convincing a good chunk of the listening public that he was a girl.
Dismissed at the time as bubblegum fluff, "MMMBop" has aged into something more respected. Its lyric is not actually nonsense: beneath the goofy chorus, it's a rumination on how few relationships last a lifetime ("in an mmmbop they're gone"). Decades on, it endures as one of the most perfectly preserved artifacts of '90s pop — the garbled-lyric singalong of every school dance and sleepover.
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Hanson — Middle of Nowhere
Three teenage brothers from Tulsa who somehow launched a global phenomenon with one unstoppable pop earworm. Hanson's 'MMMBop' was inescapable in 1997 — chart-topping, radio-saturating, and the subject of collective confusion when everyone realized Taylor Hanson was actually a boy.
Backstreet Boys — "As Long as You Love Me"
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Backstreet Boys — "Everybody (Backstreet's Back)"
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Backstreet Boys — "I Want It That Way"
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